Macadamia Nut Recipes

Since making the Hawaiian-inspired granola bars (by the way, don't forget to enter this week's Nuts About Granola giveaway that ends on Monday; fill in the box below ), I've been cooking with macadamias, which I love. Macadamia nuts have a rich, creamy taste and I thought they would pair incredibly well with the very last white peaches from our garden.

I improvised on my standard tart recipe and created a creamy tart composed of a macadamia nut crust and macadamia and peach custard. I sweetened the dessert with smoked sugar from our friends at Bourbon Barrel. When served slightly warm with Häagen-Dazs macadamia nut brittle ice cream, seriously, who could resist?

Whenever we have guests over, which we do frequently, I like to serve sweets. People can always make room for dessert and it's usually the thing people remember the most. This one will definitely make an impression!

The base of the dessert is a layer of chocolate macadamia brownie. I filled the rest of the bowl with a pumpkin cream made with mascarpone cheese. It has a light and creamy texture that is the perfect backdrop for the decadence of the brownie. To top off the dessert, I added some whipped cream dusted with cinnamon. A few brownie crumbs make a nice final touch, as well as sign of what's to come as your spoon cuts through the pumpkin cream.

We love brownies and make them more often than we probably should, but until now I've never served them to guests. This was my attempt to dress up a brownie into a dessert that could be served at the end of a nice dinner party. I'm happy to report that the dessert went over very well. Brownies have an incredible ability to turn anyone who even looks at them into a kid again, and it was a wonderful way to end an elegant meal.